Talk to important people?

[philbert]

Our little friends tell us that folks from Apple visit us on a daily basis. Here is a great place to give or seek feedback about all things mac related in hopes someone important might read it.

Um, if important people at Apple were interested in hearing from us they would have easily accessible contact info on their own site?

Example: Just last night I considered joining the iTunes affiliate program. Stingy details in the sales copy, and no way to contact an affiliate manager/support person. They want you to go to another site Linkshare, and complete a bunch of detailed signup forms, before you learn the details. I doubt you ever get to actually talk to any real person about the affiliate program.

Don't mean to be cynical, Apple doesn't owe me doodly. But I don't think they have much interest in hearing what we have to say...

[ksv]

Originally Posted by philbert

Um, if important people at Apple were interested in hearing from us they would have easily accessible contact info on their own site?

Example: Just last night I considered joining the iTunes affiliate program. Stingy details in the sales copy, and no way to contact an affiliate manager/support person. They want you to go to another site Linkshare, and complete a bunch of detailed signup forms, before you learn the details. I doubt you ever get to actually talk to any real person about the affiliate program.

Don't mean to be cynical, Apple doesn't owe me doodly. But I don't think they have much interest in hearing what we have to say...

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Originally Posted by philbert

Don't mean to be cynical, Apple doesn't owe me doodly. But I don't think they have much interest in hearing what we have to say...

Every company is interested in what their customers have to say -- it would be ridiculous to think that Apple just forges their own way no matter what their customers think. They are constantly implementing common suggestions, like sub-folders in iPhoto, more device compatibility in iSync, etc.

You are one user out of millions. Apple cannot be expected to appease the desires of one, single user. If your desire is common among more than a handful of users, there is no doubt that Apple will consider whatever it is.

I use the words "you" and "your" in a general sense to mean "Macintosh users in general" -- nothing personal.

[philbert]

Hmm. Well OK, just for the sake of rant thread building :-) here's another little example from repeated personal experience that tells me that Apple is not too interested in hearing from us. If you haven't had this experience, and don't share my theory, that's OK, no problem, I'm just sharing one user's perspective, that's all.

About every other Mac I buy from Apple arrives here with something broken. Not in my opinion, in the opinion of the certified warranty techs who replace the broken part at Apple's expense.

Quality control is another subject, let's step over it for now.

The point is that in none of these instances has anybody from Apple ever offered me an apology of any kind for the extra trouble I had to take to fix _their_ broken stuff.

They know the warranty repair was done, they paid for it. They have my mailing address, my phone, my email.

If Apple was interested in having a relationship with me, they would have sent a mass produced post card, or email etc, expressing their regret.

If you find this to be a quibbling complaint, then try this.

I have some almost but not quite finished Perl programs here. Buy them from me. Give me your money. When my not ready for prime time programs crash, and bring your web site down, I will honor warranty, but not apologize. Am I interested in my relationship with you, or not? How interested are you at this point?

[fryke]

If you take your PowerBook (just an example) to the dealer you've bought it from for a warranty repair and he sends it off to Apple, it's repaired and gets back to you, it's the dealer's duty to apologise. He's your contact, not Apple. If you truly want Apple to have an "apology division", I think that'd be wrong. A mass produced post card or an anonymous e-mail message probably would get on people's nerves more than they'd feel better... I'm not saying they couldn't do better, but I think the key is to assure quality control rather than investing in the apology-business.

[philbert]

Right, I understand, I do think you've summarized Apple's point of view well.

The "dealer" I bought my macs from is the Apple web site.

Again, if you like this system where a company sells you broken stuff and doesn't apologize, I would welcome you as a customer. I have lots of broken stuff I'd be happy to sell you under those terms. :-)

[cfleck]

So you want an apology because what they sold you was broken. They fixed it under warranty, but you need that apology. Interesting.

If I take back a broken dvd player to Wal-mart, I don't get an apology from the the clerk behind the counter, nor do I expect one. Maybe that is just how I am, but it seems a bit silly to expect apologies.

I'm not trying to be friends with the companies I deal with, nor or they seeking to hang out with me.

Now if I call the apple store, tell them my order and they get it wrong, an apology MAY be in order. That is it might be nice to hear the person on the other side of the phone say "I'm sorry, but I must have not heard you correctly." Done.

Now if they send me that G5 I ordered and the hard drive is DOA. I send it back, they send me a new one. Grand! What else is there? "I'm sorry, but as the telephone order dude, I had no hand in picking your hard drive, but please except my apologies on behalf of hitachi for making a defective unit." Spare me.

You make it sound like every mac they sell is defective, and they do it on purpose.

[cfleck]

And to follow that, if you sold me software you knew didn't work, we'd just be going to court or you'd be giving my money back. The apology would go where the sun doesn't shine.